3 Nov 2009

Wessex Ridgeway - Part 1

Last year 3 of us entered the Wessex Ridgeway Relay. Due to an over ambitious plan to run the 100km relay with 2 slow old blokes and one slightly younger, quicker bloke with a bad knee, we did not make the end. (Which one am I? - a clue my knee is fine.) Most teams have 6 members and run the off road route in a time between 8 and 12 hours.

We reached the hill above Beaminster way behind everyone else having got badly lost and down to 2 men so we decided to call it a day.

This was our first DNF (Did Not Finish - printed on race results instead of your time) and meant there was unfinished business out there. Taking inspiration from this and also the 84km Bivvy Challenge Simon and I have decided to give it another go but in a different format.

http://www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=23139

The idea is to walk/run the route over 2 days. We will start from Tollard Royal early Saturday morning. Overnight will be bivvying under a hospitable hedge with views over the Marshwood Vale and out to the coast, luxury. Towards the end of Sunday we leave the Ridgeway before its official end at Lyme Regis and head for home.

The route means we are never too far from home so if things go badly wrong we should be able to get home fairly easily and the north Dorset wilderness is not exactly remote compare to other peoples plans.

Kit has been planned and currently stands at 4.5 kg without and food or water. It is basically made up of Clothing, Sleeping, Food/Cooking and Others. If you want to see the details click here. We hope to pick up some food and water in a couple of the small towns we pass through.

All I can do now is look at the weather forecast and hope it all works.

3 comments:

  1. Looks like a great challenge Ben,makes me wish I was coming with you,maybe another time :-)
    I will look forward to hearing how it goes!
    Good Luck
    Graham

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  2. Graham I think I saw the bivvy challenge from a link of yours on Facebook. So it is partly down to you. Thanks I think

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  3. oooh, i saw that bivvy challenge on singletrack and have been thinking about.....have a great time :)

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